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He Turned His House Into A Museum

14th, 2011

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The collection built up by 71-year-old Mehmet Varol living at the village of Çandır in Köyceğiz, Muğla with original nomad stuff attracts great attention. The house which was turned into a museum is visited by roughly 1500 people each year.

The Nomad Museum originated by 71-year-old Mehmet Varol at Çandır village in the ancient city of Kaunos is a great attraction.

The Nomad Museum was built up only by the efforts of Mehmet Varol and sheds light on the history of nomads. Mehmet Varol said he exhibits the original nomad goods and his aim was to promote nomad culture to young generations. Grown in nomads himself, he is well aware of the pre and after Republic period nomad culture, and he shows off their way of living in his museum.

Varol said he was born in a single room tent in 1940, and in 1945 they left where he was born to live in Çandır. He said there are more than a thousand articles in the museum including 400 years old woods to make camel pulp, various clothes, wedding dresses, haircloth tents, rugs, carpets, scales with notches instead of weights, crown point, ornaments, wood and copper items, fire sticks, ewers, the gas lamps, wood paneling, scarves, scarfs, vests, cradles, tools to spin wool called teşe and a lot more. Varol said he did not want the stuff of his nomad ancestors get lost and he decided to build up such a collection to promote nomad culture to young ones.

“I created a collection of articles used bu our nomad ancestors who have lived in pre, during and after republic period. It has been almost 3 years that we have opened the museum and both foreign and domestic holdiay makers show great interest to the exhibited items. This year, we had approximately 700 visitors. Entrance is totally free. This exhibition has no commercial concern. I just wanted to show how our ancestors lived without technology periods. Nomadic culture left some signs especially on the carpets. Thanks to these signs, I can understand what nomad community lived in which region. In my collection, I have items such as wood containers, wood scales, pulp wood and fodders for camels from Ottoman-era. These are very important works of our culture which connect past and present. If they had not been reevaluated, they would have been thrown away. Here, I certainly do not expect any income, any visitor is most welcome without paying any fees.”